7 April 2010

Sarah, Duchess of York to appear on Skavlan TV show

Sarah, Duchess of York, the former wife of HRH The Duke of York, will be a guest at the Swedish-Norwegian TV show «Skavlan» on Friday 9 April, the Norwegian media reports today. The TV show is hosted by the Norwegian Fredrik Skavlan.

I don't know why the former Duchess has been found interesting enough to get invited to the show, but Marianne Torp, a member of the Skavlan staff, says she is going to «fortelle litt om livet hun lever nå, rollen hennes som hertuginne [!!!], og hva hun er opptatt av»

(«tell a little about the life she is leading now, her role as a Duchess [!!!], and what she is engaged in»). Could someone please tell Ms. Torp that Sarah is not a Duchess anylonger? If NRK.no's headline today, «Adelig besøk hos «Skavlan»» («Noble visit at «Skavlan»»), is anything to go by, I really fear for the level of the show.

(Just for the record: when Sarah was married to HRH The Duke of York, she was titled/styled HRH The Duchess of York. After the divorce, she is styled as Sarah, Duchess of York.)

Other guests are the British pop singer, model and TV personality Cheryl Cole, the Norwegian comedian and football fanatic Bård Tufte Johansen, the Swedish actor, TV host and stand up comedian Magnus Härenstam and the Norwegian social anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen. The latter is according to NRK.no going to talk about why feelings explode at football matches. Bård Tufte Johansen is currently involved with the TV documentary «Fotballkrigen» («The Football War») and has in this connection travelled around the world to watch famous derbies and football wars, including Fenerbahce vs. Galatasary of Turkey and Rangers and Celtic of Scotland.

«Skavlan» is a talk show broadcasted on the Norwegian channel NRK and the Swedish channel STV. The show is this spring produced by NRK, while STV was responsible for the programs last fall.

This blog is written by Dag T. Hoelseth, a Norwegian historian specialising in royal history.
I have a Cand.philol. degree in history from the University of Oslo and graduated in 1997 with the dissertation Det nasjonale kongedømme. Det norske monarkiet 1905-1910, which dealt with the royal election in Norway 1905 and how the new dynasty "became Norwegian".
I am the author of Historisk utredning om Kongehuset, dets apanasjer og disponible statseiendommer, which was published on behalf of the Palace Committee in 2001. The report focused among others on the history of the Norwegian civil list from 1905 to the 1970s as well as the properties the king of Norway has to his disposal.
I have made contributions to several antologies and also written articles for various publications. More often I have operated "behind the scene", consulting newspapers etc. with background information.
Among my other interests are genealogy, Norwegian-American emigration history, US presidential history, traveling, football and ice hockey.